Unknown, masked, armed men beat up protestors and shut down stores in #Karbala. #IraqProtests #insm_iq
The demonstrators in #Basra reject the nomination of #ASaadalAidani for the post of #PrimeMinister of #Iraq.
This is the third #person to #fall in front of the #people, and he cannot obtain the #confidence of parliamentarians.
#IraqProtests #IraqiRevolution #Iraq #TwitterKurds
From the demonstration square in #Basra, the protesters cheer "we rejecting you" in response to the corrupt candidates nominated by the corrupt government parties
#IraqRevolution
#IraqProtests
#Iraq 
AFP reports:
Iraqi anti-government protesters again hit the streets on Wednesday, angered by an activist’s death and an attempt on the life of a popular TV satirist.
[. . .]
Passions were inflamed when popular TV satirist Aws Fadhil was targeted on Tuesday by unknown assailants, with three bullets hitting his car.
Mr. Fadhil posted footage of the bullet holes on social media and declared: “They are targeting those who support the revolution, to silence them ... But we are continuing our revolution.”
He added that “we have already achieved a goal”, referring to a parliamentary vote on Tuesday to approve an electoral reform law, in line with the demands of the protesters. Lawmakers will from now be elected in first-past-the-post contests within electoral districts, rather than through a complex system using provincial party lists and proportional representation.
On the subject of Iraq's future prime minister, NRT reports:
The office of Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Wednesday (December 25) that it had nominated four candidates for the position of Prime Minister.
The Sadr’s office said it had sent four names to the Iraqi Presidency to pick up one of them for Premier position.
“Those are independent and not members of our movement,” his office said.
The candidates include Ahmed Karim Hamd Ajbawi, Rafid Abdulrahim Nu’man Aaraji, Saad Ghali Kazim Tamimi, and Ghazwan Yasir Minjel Shablawi.
But protesters in Tahrir Square, the hub of the protest movement in Iraq's capital city Baghdad, rejected the nomination, saying al-Eidani represents the establishment.
"The protest movement refuses any candidate from across Iraq's current political parties and alliances," said Ali Khraybit, a 27-year-old protester in Tahrir Square.
"The protest movement is clear about who we want as a new prime minister. We want a candidate who isn't corrupt and independent of the political establishment," Khraybit told Al Jazeera. "Al-Eidani is part of the political system we want overhauled and so our demonstrations will continue until we get a prime minister who fits our criteria."
Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) explains others the protesters have objected to have not moved further, "The Binaa bloc previously nominated Mohammad Al Sudani, a former member of the country’s Islamic Dawa party, to take the position but protesters fiercely rejected him. Qusay Al Suhail, who served as higher education minister in the government of Mr Abdul Mahdi, was also nominated but was opposed by the public for his ties with Iran."
Though they can't agree on a prime minister, they do have a new election law.
REUTERS reports:
Iraq’s parliament approved on Tuesday a new electoral law, a key demand of protesters to make elections fairer, but political deadlock is still holding up the selection of an interim prime minister, threatening renewed unrest.
Mass protests have gripped Iraq since Oct. 1 and protesters, most of them young, are demanding an overhaul of a political system they see as profoundly corrupt and keeping most Iraqis in poverty. More than 450 people have been killed.
“In the name of Iraq, and in the name of the Iraqi people, in the name of the martyrs, in the name of all those who sacrificed, in the name of the displaced, the law has been approved,” Council of Representatives Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi said after the vote.
Of the new law, AP reports, "The new law changes each of the country’s 18 provinces into several electoral districts, with one legislator elected per 100,000 people. It also prevents parties from running on unified lists, which in the past have helped them to easily sweep all the seats in a specific province. Instead, seats will go to whoever gets the most votes in the electoral districts." There are other issues. Mohammed Rwanduzy (RUDAW) explains:
Under the old system, each province constituted one big electoral circle and parties with the most votes won the province. Parties also had the power to move around votes among their candidates. If a parliamentary seat became vacant, for whatever reason, the party could fill it with its own member who was next in line. Now, voters cast a ballot directly for individual candidates and, if the winner cannot enter parliament, then the second place finisher will fill the seat.
The new law passed with a majority vote in the parliament, though all the Kurdish parties, except for New Generation’s only MP, walked out in protest. Their main objection was over Article 15, which details the running of independents and electoral circles. Some Sunni lawmakers also walked out.
Another point of contention is Article 16, concerning representation of women. The 25 percent quota of seats reserved for women remains unchanged and fewer women could end up in the legislature as a man could take the seat of a woman if she has to pull out of the parliament, for whatever reason.
In other news, ISIS never left Iraq.
Mustafa Habib Retweeted
Because a longread about ISIS is what you most want on Christmas Day, here’s a look at their efforts to stage a comeback based on our travels in Syria & Iraq. With photos by the amazing @martinsalice. You're welcome.
Mu Xuequan (XINHUA) reports, "Three security members were killed and four others wounded on Wednesday in an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a police source said." XINHUA also reports:
A civilian was killed and four others wounded on Wednesday in a bomb attack near a soccer field in east Iraqi capital Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
The attack occurred in the evening when a booby-trapped motorcycle detonated near a local soccer field in Sadr City neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, leaving a civilian killed and four others wounded, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
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